Magazine

Living Proof

I was raised in the suburbs north of Atlanta in a comfortable, middle class household. We never had money issues that I was aware of. We went to Disney World every other year. My parents drove nice cars and we lived in a decent house. There was no foreshadowing that I would one day be living on the street, in the woods, shoplifting my dinner and beer from grocery stores. If there wasn’t a grocery store to steal from, I wasn’t above dumpster diving.

When I was at especially low moments I would think, I was raised better than this. I didn’t know then that I suffered from the disease of alcoholism, which meant it didn’t matter how I was raised.

-- Chris M.

Brookhaven, Georgia, USA

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